Massage is an important aspect of maintaining good physical condition when you’re endurance athlete like a marathon runner. In fact, it can keep your muscles limber and loose, effectively preventing injury and pain. Unfortunately, many runners come in for their first professional massage right before the marathon, which if too focused or too intense, could actually cause injury.
Instead of scheduling a massage just before the marathon, runners would be much better off incorporating it into their regular routine. Should a runner decide to go ahead and have a massage before a marathon, it’s vital that it’s a very basic one. It shouldn’t focus on any specific problems, issues, aches or pains. The strokes shouldn’t be deep. The idea is to simply relax the muscles. The last thing you want to do is tax muscles that are already working hard.